Lee Chilcote of Cleveland and David Hassler of Kent will be featured at the first Lit Youngstown reading of 2021.

Chilcote is a journalist, poet and author whose writing has been published by Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt and many literary journals as well as in “The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook,” “The Cleveland Anthology” and “A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts from a Segregated City.”

He is the author of the poetry chapbooks “The Shape of Home” and “How to Live in Ruins.” He is a founder and past executive director of Literary Cleveland.

Hassler directs the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University. He is the author or editor of nine books of poetry and nonfiction, including “Red Kimono, Yellow Barn,” “Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community” and the play “May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970.”

Both will read from their work at 7 p.m. Wednesday as part of Lit Youngstown’s First Wednesday Readers Series. The reading will be followed by an open mic co-hosted by Chris Minton. It can be viewed on Lit Youngstown’s Facebook page. Those interested in participating in the open mic can register at lityoungstown.org for the Zoom link.